Mr. Flinders’s Observations 
242 
mercury fell with some rapidity down to 29,65 with the wind 
from ESE. It was eight o’clock at night, and we prepared 
for a gale from that quarter ; but at ten, the wind suddenly 
shifted to WNW, coming very light off the land. On its 
veering gradually round to SSW, clear of the land, at noon, 
23d, it freshened, and the weather became thick; yet the 
mercury had then risen to 29,84, and at eight in the evening 
to 29,95, though the wind then blew strong. It continued to 
rise to 30,16 as the wind shifted round to SE, and fine weather 
came on ; but on the wind passing round to ENE and NNE, 
which was off the land, the mercury fell back to 29,73, 
though the weather was fine and the wind moderate. On a 
sudden shift of wind to the SW, a fresh breeze with hazy 
weather, it again began to ascend, and a similar routine of 
wind, producing nearly the same effects upon the barometer, 
again took place. The effect of sea winds in raising the 
mercury, in opposition to a strong breeze, and of land winds 
in depressing it, though they were light, was here exemplified 
in two remarkable instances. 
j^th. In the neighbourhood of the Isle of St. Francis of 
Nuyts, longitude 1334° east of Greenwich, we experienced a 
considerable change in the barometer. For nine days in Ja- 
nuary and February the wind continued to blow constantly, 
though moderately, from the eastward, mostly from the SE. 
It appeared like a regular trade-wind or monsoon, but so far 
partook of the nature of sea and land breezes, as commonly 
to shift more to the southward in the day, and to blow more 
from east and NE in the night. The weather was very hazy 
during these nine days ; so much so, that for six of them no 
observation of the sun’s altitude, worthy of confidence, could 
